On the 8th of April, Morgan Stanley became the first Wall Street bank to launch its own Bitcoin-tracking exchange-traded fund under the ticker MSBT.
Debuting on the NYSE Arca, MSBT recorded $30.6 million in inflows on its first day, as reported by Farside Investors ETF monitor.
Interestingly, Senior Bloomberg Analyst Eric Balchunas had already predicted this inflow when he took to X and noted,
Morgan Stanley’s MSBT vs other Spot BTC ETFs debut
However, if looked back, in comparison to other Bitcoin [BTC] ETFs, the performance was low.
This is because on the 11th January 2024, the launch date of multiple Spot Bitcoin ETFs, Bitwise’s BITB saw inflows worth $237.9, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC, which recorded inflows worth $227.0 million.
Additionally, BlackRock’s IBIT saw inflows worth $111.7 million. In fact, only Invesco’s BTCO, Valkyrie’s BRRR, Wisdom Tree’s BTCW, and VanEck’s HOLD were the ones that recorded inflows less than MSBT.
📈Does MSBT have an edge in this competitive market?
Yet despite this, and being late to the launch list, the fees and scale are giving MSBT a secret advantage over others.
Accounting for an expense ratio of 14 basis points in comparison to Grayscale’s BTC’s 1 basis point and BlackRock’s IBIT’s 11 basis points, MSBT is the cheapest fund.
💥Final Summary
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF debut was not that strong, but fees and scales are giving it an additional advantage over other Spot BTC ETFs.
Launching at a time when the crypto market was volatile shows banks’ long-term conviction in Bitcoin.
$BTC #MorganStanley'sBTCETFSetToLaunch
